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View SlideshowRequest to buy this photoPeter Hove Olesen | PolfotoOn Sunday, staff members of the Copenhagen Zoo prepared to butcher the carcass of Marius. The 2-year-old giraffe was killed with a bolt pistol, like those used in slaughterhouses, because he was considered genetically superfluous. Another Danish zoo has said it also might kill a giraffe because the zoo does not need it.

He said the Wilds animal preserve in Muskingum County, which the Columbus Zoo oversees, has
9,000 acres and plenty of room to house more than the six giraffes it has now.

“No matter what kind of living creatures you have in a zoo, there’s a responsibility for
zookeepers to take care of them throughout their lifetime,” Hanna said. “If we don’t do that, we
shouldn’t have zoos.”

On Sunday, the
Copenhagen Zoo killed a 2-year-old giraffe that had been born there.
Veterinarians shot the giraffe in the head with a bolt pistol — the type used in slaughterhouses —
then cut it up in front of visitors and fed parts of it to lions.

Zoo officials said the giraffe’s genes were not needed; they turned down opportunities to move
the giraffe elsewhere and said allowing visitors to watch it being cut up was educational.

In a statement yesterday, the association said its accredited zoos exchange animals and manage
breeding so animals are not born that can’t be cared for throughout their lifetimes. Unneeded
animals are not killed, the statement said.

The Jyllands Park zoo said on its Facebook page yesterday that it might have to euthanize one of
its two male giraffes if it obtains a “genetically more valuable” animal and can’t find a new home
for the unneeded giraffe.

The European Association of Zoos and Aquaria, which supported the Copenhagen Zoo’s actions, said
it would not support killing one of the Jyllands Park giraffes.

Columbus Zoo director Tom Stalf said yesterday that what happened in Copenhagen should never
happen again.

“There are so many other options,” he said.

The Columbus Zoo, for example, has 11 giraffes: eight castrated males, one male for breeding and
two females. Plans already are in place to house any offspring produced by breeding.

“When you plan, you can ensure that you’re giving the animals in your care great care and long
lives,” Stalf said.

“I’m encouraging the zoos in Denmark to manage their population and know where the offspring is
going to go before putting a male and a female together.”

In the meantime, Hanna said, plans for a Siberian tiger from the Copenhagen Zoo to come to the
Columbus Zoo for breeding have been put on hold.

“I want no involvement with anyone (from that zoo) if this kind of killing is practiced,” he
said.

He said he has not yet talked to Jyllands Park officials about how much it might cost to buy the
giraffe, but he plans to set up a fund to save any giraffes threatened with slaughter at zoos.

“I’m going to put in a nice amount to start the whole thing,” he said.

For now, he said, people can donate to the Columbus Zoo and indicate what their donations are
for.

“We have a responsibility to these animals to breed them and watch their gene pool, but we don’t
have the right to shoot the animal and say that’s educational,” he said.

“It’s a sad thing to think that human beings betrayed that beautiful giraffe. As long as I’m
alive, I’ll do everything I can to stop it.”